First day of preschool

Today was Josh's first day of preschool. He is going to Miss Heidi's this year because it is right across the road from the elementary school. He has been telling me for a while now that he doesn't want to go to school. He is afraid because it is a new school, new teacher, and new friends. He says he wants to just stay with me. I made him go anyway.
They don't do back packs at this school, they use buckets. They got to decorate them any way they chose. After a few unsuccessful suggestions, he was excited about making it into a Lego head.
He was bribed with a dollar store trip as a reward for being brave on his first day and going even when he was scared. He bought Oreo cookies and Halloween paper plates with his money.

He was a little more enthusiastic to go back the next day. :)

Chicken

We are kind of loving our chickens. This cute little one comes right up to us when we clap our hands. Isn't that sweet. Oh and they lay yummy eggs! 

Pumpkin progress

The pumpkins are coming along nicely. We've got a couple of pretty orange ones this year. They aren't giants by giant pumpkin standards, but they'll be fun for fall decoration.

3rd grade cabbage

I think we let the cabbage go a little too long this time. It came in at 26.4 lbs though, so that was respectable.

Potter Party!

My boys have FINALLY caught on to the Harry Potter world. Hayden is on book 4 and Sawyer has jumped around a bit on the books and is on book 5.
We started a Harry Potter movie marathon over the weekend, so I thought we would continue it on family night with a Potter Party while we watched #4.
I got chocolate frogs (complete with Wizard cards) and Bertie Bott's every flavor beans from Pirate-O's in Draper. I made some Butterbeer from the TIME magazine recipe that's floating around:

1 c. brown sugar
1 T. water (I needed 2 T. though).
Cook in a saucepan to about 225 degrees.

Remove from heat.
Add 6 T. cut up cold butter
Stir.
Add 1/2 tsp cider vinegar
3/4 c. cream
3/4 tsp. rum extract

Stir until well mixed= Butterscotch base.

In a separate bowl mix cream with a swirling of the butterscotch base to make a buttery whipped cream.

Put some butterscotch base in the bottom of a mug. Add cream soda. Stir to mix the flavors well. Add a dollop of the buttery whipped cream. Enjoy!

It was delicious.

In the picture above, Hayden had just eaten an "earthworm" flavored bean. The kids had fun eating the disgusting beans, but even more fun the next day giving them to their friends to eat!

First day of 8th grade

McKinley went back to school today. She had a hard time actually getting moving this morning, so we rushed through the back to school pictures in an attempt not to be late the first day!

Here we go 8th grade!

Bear Lake

Last minute trip to Bear Lake thanks to Kent's boss who let us stay in their condo since they weren't going to this week. We could only do a weekend trip since we're in school and have work to get back to on Monday. We stayed in Ideal Beach Resort, so there is a beach right in front of the property that we could use. We played on the beach, rented a wave runner, and of course battled Pokemon at the Pokegym. We also visited the Minnetonka Cave. It was a fun getaway! We haven't been to Bear Lake since Sawyer was just little.